Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Looking for Feedback on Word Verification

Hi, all -

I have noticed lately that Blogger's word verification has become more difficult (and presumably more secure). I don't really have cognitive problems most of the time, yet I've been having trouble with it on other blogs, often needing 2 or 3 tries to get it right.

So, I'm concerned about you, the readers of my CFS blog, many of whom probably suffer much more debilitating cognitive dysfunction than I do.

I always use word verification because when I turn it off, my blogs get deluged with spam - much of it in Chinese characters!!

But, I have turned it off temporarily to poll you.

So, please leave me a comment here about how difficult word verification is for you. In particular, PLEASE tell me if you do not normally leave comments BECAUSE of the word verification.

I use word verification for the same reason you do plus I was getting some pretty disturbing, stalker type comments a while back so I've kept my word verification on and I don't mind that anyone else uses it!

I'm trying to get back into the swing of commenting on blogs as things have been hectic since Mom had her mini-stroke at the end of February just after we found out that my father.in.law is ailing, so that is my only reason for not commenting.

I hope you're well and feeling well too! (Along with your son and the rest of your family).

I have had real problems with it lately, mostly bc my brain looks at them and thinks: 'what is that supposed to say? Those are not real letters.'

I'm also having compatibility issues with it as well. For some reason the new captchas don't show up 3/5 times in Firefox (for me, at least), and when they do, they're ridiculously hard (I attempted to do the audio one the other day, it was like torture: are you supposed to type all the words? The first two/three/four? Why wouldn't it stop rambling???) So yes; I had to shut mine off, and am finding it troublesome on other's pages as well.

NTE - I use Frefox and don't have that problem, but these new word verifications are definitely harder! With the letters all wavy and blurred, it can be nearly impossible to figure out every letter sometimes. If they at least used REAL words, then I might be able to figure it out!

Word verification borders on impossible for me, so I don't use it on my own blog and haven't done for years. I avoid commenting on blogs that use it, because usually after several incorrect attempts my functional time is up and I have to stop anyway. I feel word verification is very inaccessible to people with disabilities and also people using mobile phones to read blogs - and many people with severe ME use their phone in bed. To each their own though!

Typing this on my iPhone. iPad looks just like a regular web browser. Will let you know shortly what the captcha looks like here. The reply box is a bit flaky on iPhone. Sometimes you just can't get the letters to appear. The layout is much simpler on iPhone. No sidebar stuff, just the middle column shrunken down.

Oops, nevermind. Forgot you said you had turned it off! This textbook focus issue (the typing thing I mentioned) is actually quite annoying, for what it's worth. Otherwise the site looks good on iPhone and is easy to use. Text could be bigger...

It's visually the same on a phone (or it is on mine) but the text input for word verification is even harder than on a keyboard - jumping from lower case to capital letter to number between each digit is tricky on the ole brain!

I've given this all some thought, and I have no idea if this is the reason or not, but I've always used a gmail address for my blogger account, never used word verification on my blog, and never had a problem with spam comments. Could be nothing to do with the gmail address, but I'm surprised to hear others have spam issues because in 7 years I haven't. Maybe I'm just lucky?!

I have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS or CFIDS) since March 2002. My 19-year old and 16-year old sons also have CFS, and my older son also has Lyme disease plus two other tick infections. This blog is about how our family is learning to live with chronic illness, with a focus on living and enjoying our lives in spite of these challenges.